FELIS CONCOLOK. ^7 



serted in print, that the Panther lurks in ambush for its prey ; that it 

 lies in wait beside the runways of the wary deer, hidden by some 

 rock or thicket, or crouching- upon an overhanging- limb, and falls, 

 like a thunderbolt from heaven, upon the back of its hapless and un- 

 suspecting victim. Such romances, however gratifying to the nar- 

 rator, and entertaining to the community, are without foundation in 

 fact, and could only have originated in the over-fertile imagination 

 of a conscienceless fabricator : 



- a false creation, 



Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain." 



jd. Concerning the Screams of the Panther. 



Who has not heard of the piercing cries and startling screams of 

 the Panther ? Who has listened, about the evening camp-fire, to the 

 tales of hunters and woodsmen, but has felt his blood run cold, and 

 his hat lighten on his head, as the earnest speaker, perhaps in a 

 whisper, and uninterrupted save by the sputtering of the fire, told of 

 the time when alone in the solitudes of the deep forest, and at the 

 dead of night, he was suddenly awakened by a piercing scream that 

 burst upon his weary ears. It seemed like the shriek of a woman in 

 distress, or the pitiful cry of a lost child. Half asleep, bewildered, 

 and amazed, he starts to his feet to render assistance, when the elar- 



O 



ing eyeballs of a fierce Cougar meet his horrified gaze and acquaint 

 him with the nature of his unwelcome guest ! 



An attack of indigestion, the cry of a Loon, or the screech of an 

 Owl, a piece of phosphorescent wood, and a very moderate imagination, 

 are all that are necessary, in the way of material and connections, to 

 build up a thrilling tale of this description. Indeed, the writer once 

 had a bit of personal experience in this line that is not yet forgotten. 



In conversing with honest hunters upon this point it has been my 

 uniform experience to find that those who have had most to do with 

 Panthers are the most skeptical in regard to their cries ; and I have yet 

 to find the man, whose statements on this point are of any value, that 



